I Wish I Didn't have to Admit This
What a Shock!
After I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues (see my speaking-in-tongues posts part one and two) I expected the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:23) to just appear in my life. I'd be so holy.
Actually, I did overflow with love, joy, and peace.
However, I cannot say that I never again lost my patience, never behaved unkindly, never again told a "polite" lie, or spoke out of anger, or lost my self control, or was self-righteous or judgmental.
How can this be? The Holy Spirit lives inside me. I am a Temple and I'm not perfect?!??
How can this be? I hunger and thirst for righteousness, yet I still have this fleshly nature which wars against my soul? Oh yeah. Just ask my dear husband. Of course he may exaggerate my faults. Just a little.
Why didn't the old things pass away and all things become new?
The Spirit of truth led me to I Thess. 5:23. and impressed on my understanding that I am a trinity created in the image of God. It is my spirit that is a new creation. My soul has to be renewed. My body will be made new at the resurrection.
As I renew my mind with the Word, wrong thinking and wrong doing passes away and all things become new. This is a process. I still have to fight battles when I am tempted to be someone that I do not wish to be, just as Paul wrote in Romans Chapter 7.
Paul said, "I die daily so that it is no longer I ( my former self) but Christ who lives in me." Some people think this means we live in aging bodies which die a little each day and that's partly true, however it has a greater meaning.
I have to die to my fleshly desires daily.
I also found that praying in the spirit makes that easier. For instance, it would be so easy to excuse my irritable words by saying, "Well Lord, no man can tame the tongue." (James 3:8).
The Spirit whispers, "Yes, but I can. Put the words of Jesus in your heart for out of it the mouth speaks."
When I complain: "Father. I tried to crucify my flesh but I got one hand nailed to the cross and there was no way to nail the other hand," the Spirit whispers, "Yes but I can. Abide in the vine and you will produce fruit."
There have been challenges from without that threatened my faith walk. There have been disappointments. The storms of life happen. Those trials are what make believers into over comers.
I Thank God my house is built on solid rock.I thank my God I speak in tongues. It is a mighty weapon of warfare.